A 60-year-old Rainier Beach man seriously injured in a dispute over a neighborhood traffic circle died Thursday night at Harborview Medical Center.

James Paroline had been in a coma since being punched and hitting his head on the concrete during the altercation Wednesday, while Seattle police continued to look for the suspect believed to have caused his injuries. He died about 9:20 p.m., a spokeswoman for the medical center said.

"The thing is, none of this had to happen," neighbor Richard Dixon said.

At about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Paroline was watering the little garden he had planted on the traffic circle at 61st Avenue South and South Cooper Street, Dixon said.

He ran a garden hose from his house at the corner to the traffic circle -- one of roughly 700 that city transportation officials estimate have gardens on them. When Dixon, 57, who was driving to Safeway, reached the corner intending to make a right turn, he found that Paroline, as he often does, had put a traffic cone in the right lane to keep drivers from driving over the hose.

Paroline often complained about drivers running it over, said Tim Aguero, 39, who also lives on the quiet street of small houses and florid lawns.

But that cone led to a confrontation with another motorist, in which Paroline was punched in the face and rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said Thursday.

Dixon said Paroline told him to go left around the circle but, worried about a ticket, Dixon asked Paroline to move the cone and called 911 when he refused. Then, Dixon said, he saw a car of young women drive up.

One got out to tell Paroline to move the cone, police said. When he refused, the women began moving the cones themselves. Paroline sprayed one of the women with his hose.

"When she got sprayed, she really went crazy," Dixon said.

Ronald Tobin, 14, was outside playing when he heard the arguing. "They were yelling, and they were all up on (Paroline)," he said.

Police said that a short time later, another car drove up and a passenger -- described as an African-American man in his 20s, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighing about 160 pounds, and wearing a gray tank top, black jeans and a blue do-rag -- got out to confront Paroline.

The man delivered "one punch," Dixon said.

Detectives do not know how the suspect is connected to the girls. But Tobin said the girls called out to a passing motorist just before the man showed up.

Police spokesman Mark Jamieson confirmed that the man hit Paroline, who fell on his back,struck his head on the concrete and was knocked unconscious. The assailant then got in his car and sped off.

A photo taken by a neighbor showed the bearded man lying bleeding by the traffic circle, in khaki shorts, a gray T-shirt and sandals, and clutching the hose.

"This was completely needless. He'd been watering the traffic circle with the hose and the cone for quite some time. And this is the first time anything has happened," Jamieson said. "Most reasonable people just wait or go the other way. But for some reason the people in the car decided to make something out of it."

On Thursday, some described Paroline as somewhat of a curmudgeon, who'd call the police about neighbors singing in their yard or leaving recycling bins out too long.

"It shouldn't have happened, but I thought he'd annoy the wrong person one day," said a neighbor, Patty Joseph.

But Aguero said he'd often see Paroline walk his two dogs down the street. "He's a nice guy, sort of the neighborhood watchdog," he said.

Paroline had petitioned the city to install the traffic circle and a second one a block away.

"He's had some bad luck with that circle," Aguero said; about a year ago, a car drove through his front yard and into the front of his house.

"He said the neighbors are his solace, that we were kind of like his family, because I don't think he had a lot of people in his life," Aguero said. "He's very generous. He was always asking if I needed any help (gardening), and I was welcome to (any of his plants).

"He had his quirks, though, about the things that would upset him in the neighborhood."

But Dixon said none of it should have happened. "He shouldn't have put the cones in the street. She should have just driven the other way. He shouldn't have sprayed her. (The assailant) shouldn't have hit him."